Quote:
Originally Posted by kentuckyrifleman
Polishshooter you know a lot about military history I can tell from reading all youre posts how knowlegable you are. Did you serve in the military? I dont' remember in youre posts that you did. I did serve so if having a college degree in History makes youre opinion on politics mean more than why doesnt' my opinion on military things mean more because I served and you didnt'? See what I mean?
Your arguements would work better and convince more people if you didn't get personal. Just argue youre case on facts because when you get personal it mostly means you run out of facts and you know youre losing!
Thats how I see things but I dont' have a degree so you will just think I dont' know what I am talking about, right?
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KY, I try NEVER to get personal but yeah being human I slip.
Remember PLEASE though that I did not get personal until HE did and insulted ME, and I thought my reponse would make him see the error of him assuming everyone is IGNORANT if they don't agree with him.
If I offended anyone else I am sorry.
Schooling is NO different than experience...and you have to pay for BOTH.
No I was never in the military. I was supposed to be, both the Army (ROTC) and the Marines (PLC) were after me, I passed all the tests, in fact could have signed for ROTC but put them off for the Marines...would have had ALL my college paid for...
But late in my Junior year of High School I had an operation on my back and then suddenly it was don't call us we'll call you and they dropped me like a hot potato...ROTC invited me to join, and if I made it through two years they would "revisit" the scholarship when I was a junior.
I went to ONE meeting and decided I wouldn't go to war with any of those jokers if you PAID me...
Remember, this was 1976, in the middle of the Jimmy Carter cut backs, and just about EVERY other ROTC cadet was a druggie or a dope, or BOTH...
Literally. There were guys who spent the money their parents sent them to buy a winter coat that spent it on a 1/4 pound instead and joined ROTC just for the free M-65...others who joined just because the free Huey ride in the spring was "Way cool man, if you got high first...."
So no, I never served. And had to pay my own way through school, and even though we did not have a "Military History" concentration, I made it mine, took every milhistory course offered, even though my "Real"concentration was the Middle East and Modern Latin America...but my two graduate courses were the Civil War and US Military Policy.
Now my son is in the Army, probably living the life I should have!
But it's funny what you said, shouldn't someone who served have better knowledge than someone who didn't....
Yes and no...just having served does not NECESSARILY make someone an expert on the military in general...or military history...and historians know that especially combat verterans can be both the best and worst sources at the same time,...NOBODY can tell anyone what it was like getting shot at unless they were there, and if they WEREN'T there they probably CAN'T understand...but then again when the veteran was getting shot at, NOTHING else mattered, what was happening on the other side of the hill or battlefield...the "big picture," the strategy...NOTHING mattered except what was happening in their immediate world RIGHT now, and SURVIVING it...
But what is funny, is my "mentor," the Chairman of the Department who also had taught at the US War College strongly suggested to me that if I wanted to write about any modern military history, that I should join the guard or reserves just to get SOMETHING in my "resume..." not that I needed it, but that a lot of guys who served, just won't read or even listen to anyone who didn't, no matter how much they KNOW...
So it goes both ways...